Senate expects to vote on Judge Thomas Porteous next month

The Senate is likely to vote in early December on whether to remove New Orleans federal Judge Thomas Porteous from office, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday.

View full sizeAssociated Press archive U.S. District Judge G. Thomas could lose his judicial pension of $174,000 a year if he Senate votes to remove him from the bench.

Jim Manley, the Reid spokesman, didn't offer a precise date, though members of the Senate Impeachment Trial Committee have said they expect the vote to occur the week of Dec. 6.

The committee recently submitted a 74-page "neutral" summary to the Senate of its five-day September trial on the four articles of impeachment unanimously approved by the House of Representatives in March.

As per Senate rules, the committee made no recommendations.

Before the Senate votes, one or more of the five House impeachment managers, who serve as prosecutors in the case, and attorneys for Porteous, led by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, will make their final arguments to the full Senate.

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If two-thirds of the senators voting approve one or more of the articles, Porteous, who turns 64 next month, would lose his judgeship.

To qualify for a judicial pension, which is equal to his final salary, now $174,000, Porteous must continue to serve until age 65. If he leaves before age 65, he gets no federal pension at all.

The five House impeachment managers used their "post-trial" brief to argue that Porteous' conduct, including his acceptance of gifts from lawyers and others with business before him, was so egregious to warrant that he become the eighth judge in history to be removed by a Senate vote.

As they did during the September trial by the 12-member Senate Impeachment Trial Committee, Porteous' attorneys raised objections to removing a judge based, in large part, on allegations of misconduct that occurred before his 1994 appointment to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton. It's never happened before, and the fact that Porteous was never accused of a crime ought to give senators pause, his attorneys said.

Turley said the record of testimony at the Senate Impeachment Trial Committee shows major discrepancies in the House's impeachment case.

"This record demonstrates why the Justice Department declined to bring a single criminal charge against Judge Porteous despite his waiver of statutes of limitation to allow the prosecution of such crimes," Turley said Tuesday. "Despite the past uninformed and overheated rhetoric in this case, the record shows no more than what Judge Porteous was already sanctioned for in the Fifth Circuit and falls dangerously short of the high standard established by James Madison and the framers of our Constitution."

But the House impeachment managers' brief argued that the judge's behavior both before and after he was appointed to the federal bench warrants removal.

"To conclude otherwise is to make the position of a federal judge a lifetime safe harbor for someone who is able to hide his misdeeds and defraud the Senate into confirming him," the House managers wrote in a brief overseen by lead House counsel Alan Baron.

Porteous' attorneys said in their brief that the judge, who hasn't been allowed to hear any case since 2008 though he continues to receive his judicial salary, ought to be allowed to quietly retire.

"Judge Porteous has made serious errors in judgment, for which he has already been severely sanctioned by the 5th Circuit," the Porteous brief said. "He has promised that he will not return to active service on the federal bench. Judge Porteous simply wants to retire in the coming months without the indignity that would accompany a resignation or conviction -- neither of which is warranted."